


Juno's Wedding Gown

by Cecil_G_P



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Backstory, M/M, TRUST ISSUE ORIGIN STORY
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 08:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10987509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cecil_G_P/pseuds/Cecil_G_P
Summary: "In a lot of ways it reminded me of my old wedding gown. It was dusty, smelled like a lot of dreams had probably died in it, and pushed off into a dark corner somewhere in hopes that everyone would just forget the damn thing ever happened."Yep, here we go, a fic inspired by the line that will officially kill me.





	Juno's Wedding Gown

It’s been a few years since Peter Nureyev first laid eyes on Juno Steel. He had liked the detective sure, he was hot as hell and charming too. Charming. Not many people probably would have found it charming to find your mandatory work partner trying to climb out the window to avoid them but Peter Nureyev was not most people. But even still, when he first met Juno Steel he would have never imagined that he would end up in a relationship with him, let alone a long term one. Spending a week with Juno had once been a blissful exception to his whirlwind life across the galaxy, now spending a week away from him was a bittersweet exception to his -still admittedly whirlwind- life on mars. 

Today was no whirlwind though. Peter had just gotten back from a heist, yet to see Juno as he hadn’t finished his case for the day. While waiting he decided to find a new hiding place for his latest heist spoils. It was a little difficult what with all the hiding space he had already used up across the apartment, but he was sure there’d be some nook in the closet he had yet to utilize. 

Sifting through the mess in their shared closet, opening boxes and setting them aside, he was simply looking for a quiet unsuspecting place to hide a couple of gems. There was one box in the back, old and dusty and out of sight, the perfect hiding place.

Peter lifted the lid, expecting old case files or high school yearbooks or something similar, instead he was greeted with a floofy and faded mound of white fabric. He stood, taking the fabric with him. A wedding gown unfurled, all synth satin and lace and little pearly looking beads. It was the perfect height for juno. The beads and frilly lace decorations would have started at a thick shoulder strap and cascaded down the sides of the gown, hugging the wearer’s waist and hips as the decorations wound its way around the body until the figure hugging dress flared out a little above where Juno’s knees would be, fluffy and decadent and elegant in a way the Juno of today would never stand. 

“Hey Peter! When did you get ba-”

Juno swung the closet door open, Peter jumped, having been too shocked at the discovery of what was clearly  _ Juno’s wedding dress _ to have heard the apartment door open or shut or the PI’s footsteps on the floor.

“Peter? What are you doing?”

“I’m so sorry Juno. I was just looking for a new hiding place. I didn’t mean to sn-”

“No. You uhhh- You don’t have to apologize. It’s your closet too now after all.” Juno glanced away, rubbing the back of his neck. “I should've burned that years ago anyways.”

“Burned it? But it’s gorgeous.”

“Yeah well, some of the memories attached to it aren’t so gorgeous.”

“I’m sorry.” He knelt down and gently folded the dress back into the box. “Maybe this isn’t the best time to mention it but… back when we first met on the grim’s mask case and I researched you ahead of time…”

“You found the marriage certificate.”

“And the divorce one. I suppose I had kind of forgotten about it after all these years though.”   

“Yeah, and I probably should have brought this up before we started living together.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’ll tell you. It happened years ago after all.”

Juno stepped over boxes and sat next to Peter on the floor, he skimmed his fingers over the fabric of the dress, his face was wistful and sad.

Peter had assumed that Juno had always been some variation of the petulant detective he knew today, but the story Juno told him told a tale quite contrary. Juno. Young, and bright, and going places. The kid who had crawled his way out of old town, who despite his mother, despite the trauma, despite everything that was working against him, stood bright and optimistic and  _ hopeful _ . He applied to the HCPD with the dream -no, the knowledge- that he could make Hyperion City a better place. A kid who not only became stronger than his monsters, but kinder than them too. A young man who fell in love and got married. A young man who had a nice little life ahead of him. A promotion ahead of him. 

And when bright young Juno got and lost that promotion in the space of one day, his nice little life went with it. He lost his job, his friends, his contacts, his self esteem, his husband.  _ That damned husband _ , promising support but blaming Juno for the disaster the HCPD had made for him. Promising love and commitment, but cheating on him behind his back. 

A wrecked Juno, drinking away his troubles as Vicky’s Valley. A trapped Juno, ensnared by debt, doing jobs for Vicky. The evolution of a Juno who learned to believe that disaster befell everything he touched, that he couldn’t keep nice things, didn’t deserve nice things. The evolution of a Juno who relearned the cynicism his mother tried to instill in him so young, who couldn’t trust anyone -not his mother, his husband, his coworkers, who developed a deep seated paranoia that kept him alive but also alone. 

The Juno he met, who couldn’t trust a man with a fake name and a silver tongue. Who offered adventure and romance among the stars- how could Juno trust such a man when even his own husband couldn’t be trusted that much? A man he interacted with for a full 48 hours before he was expected to trust him with his life -and was offended when that trust wasn’t available, because it wasn’t earned. A Juno who left that man, whom he was scared to love, that he was scared to ruin just like he felt he had ruined his marriage. 

The man who, despite everything, was sitting in his apartment with him. 

Peter, who was pulling Juno -a bright and healing Juno- into a crushing hug. 

“Hey Peter, it all happened like ten years ago, ancient history.”

Peter scoffed. “If I ever meet that man he’s going to have hell to pay.”

“Do. Not.” But Juno was laughing and hugging him back.

The wedding dress goes back into its box and is tucked back into the farthest reaches of the closet. Peter’s stolen treasure goes into a shoebox nearby. And Juno? Juno goes back into Peter Nureyev’s arms, he’s 40 and scared and a little bit traumatized but he’s healing goddamn it. And when Peter promises he’ll be there for Juno for as long as he’s wanted- it’s no wedding vow but Juno promises he’ll be there for Peter too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Chill w/ me or request fics at:  
> https://junosteelprivateyeball.tumblr.com/  
> I might post a drawing of Juno is the dress later! Hopefully the paper the drawing is on will not be stained by my tears!


End file.
